remember to listen...then engage in a meaningful way

Our alumni demographic is changing with each graduating class. Young alumni have different needs than graduates ten or twenty years out. Most of our grads are so busy with career, travel and family that communicating and engaging with them has become a complicated exercise in tactical manoeuvres. But is is really that difficult?

All we really need to do is ask and listen. They tell us all the time what they want. They tell us through open rates on emails, click-throughs on websites, and attendance at events. They tell us through LinkedIn and Twitter connections. And they tell us through boasting publicly about their degree and where it is from. I believe our alumni do want to engage with us, if we do it on their terms.

We need to really hear what they are telling us by analyzing the data we already have, and by going out and personally talking to them, whether in a one-one meeting or at an event they are already at. Face-face connections are invaluable. Listen to the data, find out where they are and go there. Ask them how they want to engage with us, and let them know they have been heard.

In our digital world, it's not hard to customize engagement opportunities based on segmented groups- whether by age, affiliation or industry sector.  Once we understand what a particular group wants and needs, we can give it to them in a content-rich and quick-to-absorb communication piece, through a student interaction, or at an event. We can make it valuable and meaningful for them, and also enjoyable!

They will appreciate being heard, and we will see the return on our investment of time.

lessons from the customer service era

I don't know about you, but my experience as a customer in many stores lately has been truly deplorable. It seems that customer service, and sometimes even simple human decency, is not common sense anymore, let alone part of the training package for employees. When did businesses forget that good service is the key to loyal customers?

It got me thinking, have we gotten lax with donor service as well? With our hectic work schedules and increasingly gigantic goals and responsibilities, are we remembering to be truly donor centered? Sometimes, especially for front-line fundraisers, it can get buried behind the need to do everything possible to secure donations in time for the performance review. Yet we know that just like customer loyalty, donor loyalty is dependent upon great product and service.

So I thought I would review some of the lessons I learned back when I was a student and working part-time in the retail industry:

1. Listen, don't sell. I asked questions to understand my customers' need and gave them the product that fit. Similarly, I need to ask questions to understand my donors' values, desires and passions to be able to suggest an option or project to invest in that will make them feel proud.

2. Put myself in their shoes. By anticipating their needs, I could quickly accommodate customers and give them a pleasant shopping experience. If I understand my donors, I can anticipate the things that will make them feel very comfortable with me and the organization.

3. Be competent. I needed to know my stuff so I didn't recommend a product that turned a customer's hair blue and lose her business. If I don't know my organization and project inside and out and feel passionate about it, I can't expect donors to be moved to action. 

4. Be helpful. I would never have said to a customer looking for something in the store "I don't know." I made it my business to know my store and guide the customer to the aisle they needed. Therefore I must never stare blankly at a donor who asks me about details on their tax receipt or about a planned gift simply because that is not my field of expertise.

5. Be modest. I didn't sell a lipstick by telling a customer that it won the most awards for pigment innovation. I sold it by telling her it would make her look and feel ten years younger.  In the same way, I can't make donors part with their dollars because the school has the highest rankings. Of course product credibility is important, but the donor will only ultimately give because they understand that supporting this project will make them feel great because they are improving the world.

6. Enjoy helping people. I was happiest when the store was incredibly busy and I was helping people and making them smile in the midst of chaos. So why should I feel irritated by an interruption phone call from an alumnus that was put through to me by the reception desk? That may be my chance to make someone's day by answering a question and getting them involved with the school. Hmm...must remember that the next time the phone rings.

7. Say thank you. I may have thrown a free gift in the customer's bag, but if I didn't say thank you, she still would not have had a great experience. Simply saying thank you in a direct, timely and meaningful way is all a donor needs, and it goes such a long way.

Happy donors = loyal donors. Right? Now if only I could buy a pair of shoes without getting attitude. 

social media: the best thing to happen to university advancement since the invention of homecoming

That's right. While companies are struggling to adapt to social media marketing, university advancement teams are (or should be) rejoicing that we now have tools to enhance what we've always done best: build real relationships and make connections.

source

Bill Lee, in this HBR article, rightly states: "traditional marketing is dead." However, peer-based, community-oriented marketing is now thriving because of social media. Lee reminds us to focus on two important things: 1. find influencers; and 2. give them social capital.

The influencers we've traditionally identified will likely be different than social media influencers. And that's a good thing, as we certainly need to focus on building more and better relationships with our stakeholders that don't have gray hair. We can give them social capital by empowering them with information and knowledge that will help them with their careers, their bosses, their employees, their businesses, their peers and their resumes. And then they can share this info and help others as well. We can provide them with value that will make them not only want to promote us, but also solidify a lifelong connection.

Mark Bonchek backs this up by stating that social media is a gift economy, unlike our traditional market economy. In a gift economy organizations must create social currencies related to our brand, and also earn status, not buy it. If we enable our constituents to connect with each other and with us in this way, we will build deep engagement with them that goes far beyond what traditional marketing could ever do.

Advancement teams at universities have long known that sustained growth is built through authentic customer relationships. We must therefore take advantage of every social media tool that makes sense in cultivating those alumni/student/donor relationships we've already begun. And we can reach so many more with social media marketing.

We're already ahead of the game. Let's keep the momentum going.

fuel engagement in your organization

I've been hearing a lot about how the London2012 Olympics have been such a success due to the throngs of engaged volunteers. A recent post on the Harvard Business Review explored how enthusiasm from the volunteers spilled over to all kinds of other workers around the city and resulted in productivity above the normal expectations of a typical unengaged workforce. The argument is that if organizations do more every day to draw on and fuel enthusiasms, and less to maximize efficiency, the problem of disengagement would be gone forever.

We talk a lot about engagement in university advancement, but we usually focus it on alumni and donors. We inherently understand that for our stakeholders to be engaged, we must fuel their enthusiasm and earn their trust. But do we behave the same way with our staff and colleagues?

Unfortunately, high turnover exists in the advancement industry and can hurt relationships that are building between the institution and a stakeholder. Hopefully, the engagement officer has done a good job in creating a broad relationship between the stakeholder and the school in the area in which they hold interest so that their departure has minimal effect. Then again, good work is done by engaged employees, and disengagement is the number one reason why employees leave.

Why don't we use the same approach with our staff and colleagues as we do with our stakeholders? We know it works. We know that if we build mutually profitable long-term relationships, they will lead to satisfaction, trust and results. In fact, Tony Schwartz and his firm The Energy Project are proving it. He works with companies to "shift their paradigm from getting more out of people by pushing them harder, to investing more systematically in meeting their needs, so they're freed, fueled, and inspired to bring more of themselves to work every day."  In an interesting HBR article he reasons that workers (and possibly women in particular) are so busy in today's fast-paced world that if they are given the flexibility to do their work when and how they need to, they will have the focus and energy to do a better quality job.

The advancement world is filled with a high percentage of women doing high-energy jobs like development and alumni front-line work. Schwartz's theory makes a lot of sense in this space. After all, we want to build quality, fulfilling relationships with our stakeholders, and constantly fuel them, inspire them and meet their needs so that they will give back. We naturally then need equally engaged, loyal and passionate front-line people to make those connections and achieve that goal for us.

Taking the time to fully engage and trust our staff will deliver extraordinary value to the institution that is measurable and sustainable. In the end, that's what we all want.

focusing on the right hero

Ever watch those interviews with Olympic athletes who give you a glimpse into who they really are? They remind us of what a hero really is. It's the person behind the headlines, the one who has shown us that their drive, determination and hard work has allowed them to expend their talents. It's the person who inspires others to be the best they can be.

So who should we be celebrating as the heroes of our own institutions? If you're thinking students and researchers, you've got it backwards. It's our supporters.

Too often we take our story out to the community and market our product- that being our students and our faculty. All well and good, but to inspire someone to support us, we need to tell their story, not ours. They are the hero - someone who makes a real difference. They are the ones who are doing life-changing work by enabling and inspiring us. Therefore, our message should be: we make the work of our supporters possible, not vice-versa.

Let's make our supporters central to our story as the heroes in the change we are seeking to make.